Shall we toast to flowers?
Or perhaps the moon,
waning now-
I propose Venus, so bright
in the evening sky,

which we can see now,
as all of us, all of us,
have returned
outdoors.

✶✶✶✶

Bonnie Minden Ward was born and raised in Portland. Her poetry was selected for a juried poetry post at Multnomah Art Center in Portland, and also for a public art piece at Greenway Park in Beaverton, Oregon. Her poetry has been published in Voice Catcher and Mobius: The Journal of Social Change. She continues to write gratefully with Portland Women Writers.